Everything in my life, it seemed, had led to this point, this perfect point, poised between the unwashed white and blue of temple and sky.*
Jean Houston

Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey
helps us to see that there is both an ordinary world
and a special world;
There is the ordinary world of
catching buses and spinach between the teeth,
But there is also a mythical world of
meaning and significance.

Systems thinker Peter Senge informs us
that there is both a reinforcing loop and a
balancing loop to any system;**
When there is a problem,
We must go to the balancing loop
to fix it –
And on the brighter side,
When it’s working well,
It takes us to
our perfect, timeless point
of being and doing.

Our myth, or story, is the balancing loop
for what we experience as life-in-all-its-fullness.

*Jean Houston’s A Mythic Life;
**Peter Senge’s The 5th Discipline.

We connect to an inner place of wonder, and thus we are open to recognising the spirit of wonder in the world around us.*
Kelvy Bird

Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.**

Silence and wonder,
These excite me;
If these were all my life were about,
I would be content, I feel.

And yet there is more,
For I find I must break the silence,
Allow the wonder to pour into inspiration and
into activity:
All you have to do is write one true sentence.
Write the truest sentence you know.^
Yet, I know where I must come
first of all.

*Kelvy Bird’s Generative Scribing;
**1 Kings 19:11-12;
^Ernest Hemingway, from Bernadette Jiwa’s What Great Storytellers Know.

And no matter how hard you look, you’re almost invisible
to yourself,
Camouflaged by familiarity.*
Verlyn Klinkenborg

When you feel the rush of fear as you put your point of view, your art, or your idea out into the world, this is not an invitation to step back into the shadows; it’s a sign that you’re at the edge, right where you should be.**
Martin Amor and Alex Pellew

Do what you are passionate about:
It will save you from the overfamiliar that even now is
closing in around you,
And will save you from those lullabies of
“easy and repeat.”

Your passion reminds you that
you are more than this,
A Human Becoming,
Journeying, never arriving,
The worries and fears telling you how
you are still alive.

*Verlyn Klinkenborg’s Several short sentences about writing;
**Martin Amor and Alex Pellew’s The Idea in You

Innovation is a collective phenomenon that happens between, not within, brains. Therein lies a lesson for the modern world.*
Matt Ridley

The imagination is more like the moon than the sun because it is dependent on another thing and exists, in no pure state by itself … . It needs and openness to whatever is there at the moment and to not reject whatever is there because of any formulaic concept from the past. The imagination allows me to die a credence and an integrity to any existence outside of myself.**
Michael Burkard

But it is hard to remain open to the other,
Demanding and tiring,
And yet we know this is where our future lies.

We might say,
The heroic life involves being lost in the other:
Once across [the threshold],
the hero is swallowed by the unknown,
be it a whale, a wolf,
A sarcophagus, or a cave.^

The same is not enough for us,
Something dies in us before we die,
But when we press on, if
we press on, then
I sense we may discover life’s larger topography
of grace and forgiveness and patience
and love and goodness
and compassion.

*Matt Ridley’s How Innovation Works;
**Mary Ruefle’s On Imagination;
^Jean Houston’s A Mythic Life.

Notice that as soon as something around you changes, you change in response to it. You respond all the time to your environment. A lot of the time you are completely aware of these changes. In Solution Focus we make this natural process of change work for us.*
Rayyya Ghul

 [I]f anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.**
Jesus of Nazareth

Margaret Mead would keep her hate mail and
use the anger she felt when rereading it in order
to regain her energy when tired;
She was using the letter-writer’s criticism and threat
for being an agent rather than victim.

Contrast this with a university student demanding safe space,
Effectively remaining a victim when
really they are less fragile than they know:
I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints
that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs.^

Jesus’ words perhaps have the appearance of
encouraging victimisation,
But on closer examination, we see the victimised
taking the initiative and becoming an agent,
Calling out wrongdoing with goodness –
For instance, a Roman soldier demanding a Hebrew
carry their pack for one mile
would likely get into trouble if they accepted the
offer of a second mile.

Of goodness, Iris Murdoch writes:
[Good’s] existence is the unmistakable sign
that we are spirit creatures,
attracted by excellence and made for the good.^^

Agency uncovers talents,
Notices energies,
Reaches towards values …
Employing them for the good.

*Rayya Ghul’s The Power of the Next Small Step;
**Matthew 5:39b-41;
Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s The Coddling of the American Mind;
^^Iris Murdoch’s The Sovereignty of Good.

Persons of tomorrow, though fully alive as individuals, are also at home in their relationships. Capacities such as loyalty, partnership, friendship, empathy, solidarity, support, nurturance and followership, are necessary ingredients for thriving in the 21st century.*
Maureen O’Hara and Graham Lancaster

Yes, we must continue to read and write and cipher, but we also need to embrace an education for liberating the ability to imagine, to dream, and expand the limits of the possible. … Perhaps I will find it in the future.**
Jean Houston

I’m all for someone knowing who they are,
It’s what my work is all about,
But knowing who we are only makes sense in community,
And community may well be how we come to know
who we are.

However, in the West it seems that
we are living in the age of individualism and
celebrity, and
when we do find each other can
be in the form of “us versus them,”
But this is not the future, and
it is not why we have struggled for so long
only to arrive here, now.

Agnes Varda declared,
There is only one age: alive,^
Which I borrow the style of when I suggest
there is only one future: us.

People from the future know this and
live towards this today:
Only that day dawns to which we are awake.^^

*Maureen O’Hara and Graham Lancaster’s Dancing at the Edge;
**Jean Houston’s A Mythic Life;
^Austin Kleon’s blog: A quote a day;
^^Henry David Thoreau, from Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise.

Many people live half-lives, turning the rheostat down to a very dim version of what and what they really are.*
Jean Houston

The stakes in good work are necessarily high. Our competence maybe at stake in ordinary, unthinking work, but in good words that is a heartfelt expression of ourselves, we necessarily put our identities to hazard.
David Whyte

We want magic,
But when we discover that magic is
really about turning up,
Staying longer,
Paying attention,
Failing,
Learning,
Trying again –
With no guarantees –
Then we may be tempted to search out
a more convenient path,
BUT:
Inconvenient!
That’s great news …
because it means that most other people
can’t be bothered.
It’s valuable because the very inconvenience of it
makes it scarce.
The stuff that matters is almost always inconvenient.
If it’s not, you might be mistaken about what matters.^

The thing you really want to do
is likely to be inconvenient,
But that’s why we love it;
We see how it matters to you so much that
nothing will stop you.

And because it’s scarce,
It matters to us.

*Jean Houston’s A Mythic Life;
**David Whyte’s Crossing the Unknown Sea;
^Seth Godin’s blog: Inconvenient!

There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever need.*
Howard Thurman

Bring it into the breath. Breathe that calling.**
Robert Dilts

You will recognise the genuine when you
come upon it:
Not only will you be good or
successful at being this person
with these skills, you will also
be and do these things
intuitively, and, as a result
you will grow, whilst also
meeting a deep need;
These signs do not milepost
the fake life.

We haven’t arrived,
Life finds us either moving towards
the genuine or the fake, but,
When we find our direction,
The truly wonderful thing is
what the genuine me and genuine you
brings to others.

*Brian McLaren’s God Unbound;
**Stephen Gilligan and Robert Dilts’ The Hero’s Journey,

What I actually saw as my problem is actually a crucial resource.*
Stephen Gilligan

I am reminded of a time
before I identified my talents and abilities,
When some with whom I worked, and
one in particular, were
critical of the way I saw and thought and
behaved.

It turned out what they wanted me to rein back on
what turned out to be my talents, but
what I needed to do was to
use them more adeptly and wisely.

This became my journey, so
when I read Kenneth White’s words,
I sense that he is writing about the kind of
simplicity that lies on the far side of complexity,
My slow journey in the same direction:
religion and philosophy
what I’d learned in churches and schools
were all too heavy
for this travelling life
all that remains to me was poetry
as unobtrusive as breathing
a poetry like the wind
and the maple leaf
that I spoke to myself
moving over the land.**

What I do is not for everyone, and
I am more than content in that, but
what matters most is that
some know it is for them.

*Stephen Gilligan and Robert Dilts’ The Hero’s Journey;
**Philip Newell’s Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul.

After all, a life without a cause is a life without affect.*
Paulo Coelho

*Paulo Coelho’s Aleph.